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To improve vertical speed and endurance, high-intensity resistance training (HIRT) should be an essential component of your training plan, says sports scientist, coach and athlete Susi Kraft. One half of the Berghasen blog and training resource, Susi is concerned many endurance athletes, whether trail runners, mountaineers or cyclists, believe they can skip the gym altogether or just do a little bodyweight training and that will suffice. “One of the most common myths in the endurance world is that athletes should avoid lifting heavy weights, as they don’t need that for endurance, or that it will cause them weight gain and may slow them down,” Susi says. “This is just a myth. Actually, HIRT will make you faster, stronger and less prone to injury.” Scroll down for five reasons why to make HIRT part of your training plan. Click here to watch Susi demonstrate 12 high-intensity strength exercises! Susi is a passionate ski mountaineer. Photo by Berghasen.com What is HIRT? HIRT is a high intensity form of strength training that aims to enhance maximal and explosive power, Susi explains. The goal is to build the level of strength optimal for a particular sport rather than becoming as strong as a powerlifter or as ripped as a bodybuilder. HIRT involves lifting heavy loads for only a few repetitions and focusing on the quality of movement and technique. The purpose is to stimulate the muscles and other structures in the body so they become used to heavy loads. Another general rule of HIRT is to lift the heaviest weight you can maintain throughout the sets, without compromising form. It’s backed by scientific research A 2018 meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, found endurance athletes (including runners, cyclists, cross-country skiers, and swimmers) benefitted from adding a strength training component to their training. It found athletes improved their energy cost of locomotion, maximal power, and maximal strength. Specifically, high weight, low repetition sets - HITR - were found to provide endurance athletes the best performance gains in addition to their endurance sessions. Gets your body used to heavy loads To continue getting faster for longer season after season as an endurance athlete, your body needs to be able to handle increased loads without breaking down. Lifting heavy weights provides exactly that by strengthening tendons, ligaments, collagen, and bone density. It gives the feedback your body needs to get used to carrying load on inclines and at distance. Increases vertical power Strength and power training enhances running economy, corrects imbalances, prevents injury, and increases resting metabolic rate. Furthermore, numerous studies have shown that strength training improves time-trial performance and VO2max in competitive endurance athletes. It improves movement quality, strength, and power - paramount for performance, and is important for preventing injuries. Lessens the likelihood of injury Being strong is one thing, but staying injury free is another. The ancillary effects of weight lifting include stronger ligaments and tendons, as well as the creation of new neural pathways, which can help you stay healthy. Endurance sports have some of the highest rates of injury of any [professional] sport. Most of these injuries are due to overuse or ankle sprains, which can be prevented with HITR. Building up a bulletproof body will also allow you to withstand more training stress. The culmination of these two things is consistency in training, and that leads to faster race times. Protects bone and joint health Studies have found that weight training can maintain healthy bone density and protect our joints. As we get older, bones can lose their density and osteoporosis, a common disease, can cause them to weaken and become more brittle. HITR helps to prevent this and strengthens the supporting cast of muscles surrounding joints, resulting in less force going directly to the joint structure. But first, establish a base Before launching into HIRT make sure you have first established a decent level of base strength. Do not start HIRT if you haven’t done much strength training before. Instead, begin with a bodyweight training routine first and develop strength safely and gradually. To avoid injury while working out, also make sure to learn the correct technique for each exercise before you start increasing the weight. Click here to watch Susi demonstrate 12 HIRT exercises! Lead images: By Philipp Reiter

You’ve reached the fifth and final article in the Living Peak Adventure series, which gives you everything you need to know to find, create and navigate routes that’ll keep you stoked. The series covers: How to find hot routes with Suunto app heatmaps How to find popular starting points How to create your own routes How to share your routes with friends How to navigate a route outdoors How to navigate a route outdoors Say it’s time to head out on that two night hike with your adventure buddies; you synced the route - with turn-by-turn guidance on - that you created in Suunto app with your Suunto GPS watch, and now you’re at the car park and ready to start walking. Let your watch guide you. Select the route and navigate To get started with route navigation, enter the “Exercise” menu on your watch and select your preferred sport mode - in the example above “hiking”. Now, before pressing “Start”, press the bottom button or scroll down to access the “options” menu and select “navigation” then “routes”, then select the relevant route and then tap “navigate”. Once you press start to commence your exercise activity, route navigation will appear as one of your watch screens. Follow the lines On the watch scree you’ll see two lines: The dotted “breadcrumb” trail shows the path you have covered The blue line is your planned route This is helpful outdoors because perhaps you’ll encounter an obstacle - such as a fallen tree or a swollen river - that you have to go around. The lines will show you where you are in relation to your planned route and how to get back on track. The breadcrumb line is very useful for another reason: even when you are not navigating a route, you can see the path you have already taken and can use it to backtrack part of or all of the way as required. You can also zoom in and out of the route navigation view: simply long press the middle button and use the other buttons to zoom. Turn-by-turn navigation When creating routes in Suunto app, you can choose to activate turn-by-turn instructions. When the route is transferred to your watch and used for navigation, it will give you turn-by-turn guidance with a sound alert and information on which way to turn. If you go more than 100 m (330 ft) off route, for example, the watch notifies you that you are not on the right track, as well as lets you know when you are back on route. Now go and explore! Now you’ve learned the basics by reading this five-part series, it’s time to test out and master all the features at your disposal. Step by step you will build confidence, allowing yout to explore further and further. A world of adventure is awaiting you - get out there! Learn more about navigation with Suunto 5 Peak, Suunto 9 Peak and Suunto 9 Baro.

This is the fourth post in the Living Peak Adventure series, which explains how to find, create and navigate awesome routes. The series covers: How to find hot routes with Suunto app heatmaps How to find popular starting points How to create your own routes How to share your routes with friends How to navigate a route outdoors How to share your routes with friends Imagine spring has finally arrived and you and a group of hiking buddies have found a weekend for a two night hiking trip. You have a general idea of where you’d like to go, but they leave it up to you to decide on the route. After scanning the area with Suunto app heatmaps, or with one of our partner services like Komoot, FATMAP or Outdooractive, you develop an idea for a nice route. You create your route and now you want to share it with your friends to make sure they’re onboard and to get them excited. In Suunto app maps, select the “library” button with a bookmark icon. Your library is where you can find all of the routes you have saved. Scroll down to the route and tap the “share” button on the bottom right corner of the map showing the route. Now you can copy the link and share it via email and so on, or directly share it via your preferred messaging app. All your friends need to do is open the shared file in their Suunto app.   In Suunto app you and your friends can save each others activities as routes for future navigation. Get inspiration from your friends If your friends have a public profile, you can open any of their exciting tracks, tap on the "More" icon (three dots), and save that trail to your gallery of routes. Don't forget to show some support and give a shout-out to your friend. And, naturally, your friends can also save the tracks of your activities as routes and use them for navigation. Read more How do I import a GPX file in Suunto app for iOS How do I import a GPX file for Suunto app for Android  

Whatever outdoor sport you’re into, the Living Peak Adventure article series shows you how to find, create and navigate smoking routes. The series covers: How to find hot routes with Suunto app heatmaps How to find popular starting points How to create your own routes How to share your routes with friends How to navigate a route outdoors How to create your own routes In the previous two articles, we explained how to find routes and starting points popular with our community. Say you had a look at these and decided they aren’t enough of a challenge for you. Perhaps, as an example, you need to plan out a block of hill training and want to find a route with plenty of vertical ascent. Then create your own! You can also create routes on the go with Suunto app. Getting started Open Suunto app maps and decide where you’d like to start. You can tap the arrow pointer above the search icon on the screen to reveal your current location and start your route there if you like. Just tap on the screen and you have your starting point, presented as a blue circle with A inside. Choose your mode Next, you can begin designing your route in a number of ways. On your screen, notice an icon with a mountain, trail and trees symbol - tap that and you’ll open the “routing mode” menu. Select which option fits best for your motivation and activity type. You can select the “free drawing” option if you’re taking paths that might not be on the map and don’t want the app to automatically suggest it. Or, if you’ll be following known roads and paths, select the “any road or path” option. Choose which of the five routing modes make the most sense for you. Monitor the distance and more As you create your route, the app will calculate the distance, vertical meters and estimated duration and present this information in a box at the bottom of your screen. That way you can keep track of how long and challenging your route might be. Toggle between maps As you extend your route, you can toggle between various map options to help you see exactly where you want it to go. For example, switch from 2D to a 3D map to get a better lay of the land and to look for ascents to include or avoid. You can switch between five different map styles - outdoor, satellite, dark, light and winter - to help you create your route. If you’re planning a winter cross-country skiing route, for example, select the winter map style. After creating a route you can toggle the turn-by-turn guidance on or off. Get turn-by-turn guidance You can choose whether or not the route you create includes turn-by-turn guidance. Simply tap the eye icon at the top of your screen to turn it on or off. When it’s on, this means it will automatically add all the left and right turns and once you’re following your route outdoors your watch will notify you of every turn. Add waypoints As you build your route, you can add in waypoints along the way. For example, you can add in camp, cafe, hostel and hotel waypoints to indicate the locations of these along your route. To add a waypoint, simply hold your finger on the map where the waypoint is located and then a menu will pop up. Tap the waypoint icon and then tap the flag icon again when the next menu box appears. Then scroll down to select the type of waypoint it is. Save your route You completed building your route, now all you need to do is save it, sync it with your watch and, if you desire, share it with your adventure buddies. To save, tap “done” in the top right corner. A menu box will appear that will tell you the total distance, ascent and duration of your route. Beneath that information, you must name your route, and can edit the activity type if required, turn on and turn off turn-by-turn guidance, and command the app to sync it with your watch. Tap “save” in the bottom right corner. You can now share your route. You can also create routes on our partner platforms, like Komoot, and sync them to your Suunto for navigation. Use our partner services Suunto is proud to have a wide array of partners we cooperate with. Some of these, such as Komoot and FATMAP, are route finding and planning platforms that can enhance what Suunto app offers you. You can connect your Suunto app account with Komoot or FATMAP, for example, and sync the routes you’ve created in one of those platforms with your Suunto account and watch. Just open Suunto app, tap your profile pic in the top left corner, tap “Partner services”, scroll down and select the platform you’d like to connect to. You’ll then need to login to your account there and confirm you grant it access. Now you can find or create routes in one of our partner platforms and sync it with your Suunto watch. Read more How do I create a route in Suunto app for iOS How do I create a route in Suunto app for Android How do I create and sync Points of Interest (POI) with Suunto app

The Living Peak Adventure article series gives you everything you need to know to find, create and navigate smoking routes. The series covers: How to find hot routes with Suunto app heatmaps How to find popular starting points How to create your own routes How to share your routes with friends How to navigate a route outdoors How to pinpoint the best starting spots Say you’ve identified an intriguing mountain range or forest on the map that looks like prime trail running territory. Or maybe you’ve discovered a nice cross-country skiing loop on Suunto app heatmaps, but don’t know the area so well. Now, you just need to know where to park your car and start your adventure; let the Suunto community show you. Popular starting points are shown in heatmaps as little circles the same color as the activity type you have selected. These circles indicate a parking lot, a trail head or other starting points, such as outside a hotel or apartment complex. They show you where the local Suunto community begins its adventures. Tap and go Next, simply tap on a circle you’d like to use as a starting point and an information box with options will appear at the bottom half of your screen. The box confirms it’s a popular starting point, and provides other useful info, such as the sunrise and sunset times, the temperature and coordinates. Below that you can choose to save the starting point as a POI (point of interest), or to start or end your activity there. Remember you can zoom in on your screen to more clearly see the location and what’s around it so when you arrive there you know what to look for. Suunto app has heatmaps for 16 different activity types from running, trail running, cycling and mountain biking to activities like ski touring and open water swimming. With the Suunto community behind you, you’ll always find awesome routes and know exactly where to start! Popular routes To find popular routes, open the Suunto app map and swipe up from the bottom of the screen. A menu window will open that shows nearby popular routes. Once you’ve found a popular route based on your activity type, tap the route and a box will appear on your screen allowing you to save it and sync it with your watch. You’re good to go.

At Suunto, our purpose is to help you have unforgettable outdoor experiences. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to find, create and navigate trails that simply rock. So we’ve put together the Living Peak Adventure series so everything you need to know is all in one place. We’ll cover: How to find hot routes with Suunto app heatmaps How to find popular starting points How to create your own routes How to share your routes with friends How to navigate a route outdoors Master this, and your best adventures are still waiting! Find hot routes with Suunto app heatmaps Imagine you’ve moved across town or to a new city altogether and you’re looking for some sweet local spots to go mountain biking or trail running, Suunto app heatmaps will show you what’s hot with the locals. You can view Suunto heatmaps also in 3D! Based on millions of workouts, Heatmaps highlight the most frequented training spots for more than 16 sports in locations around the world. Just select the activity type for your heatmap, whether trail running, cycling, swimming and so on, and the more our community works out somewhere, the brighter the lines in our maps become (each sport has its own color), making it easy for you to see where to head next. There are five map styles for you to toggle between, depending on your sport, season and what you are looking for. You can also use heatmaps to identify locations not so popular with our community if you are searching for somewhere quieter or less frequented to go. Look for duller colored lines. How to use Suunto app heatmaps First, open Suunto app on your device, then open the map by tapping the location pointer icon on the bottom right corner. Now select the heatmap layer for your sport or activity type and choose your preferred map style. Zoom in to look more closely at particular trails or areas of interest. The brighter the lines, the more popular those routes are. Switch from 2D to 3D You can also switch between a standard 2D map and a 3D map. The former gives you an overview of the location and the popular routes, while the latter, when you zoom in, gives a better sense of the topography - hills, valley and mountains and so on. Switch between 3D and 2D maps and different map layers to get the most out of heatmaps. Whether you select the 2D or 3D map, you can zoom in and create your own route. Simply tap the plus symbol on the lower right side and tap where on the map you’d like your route to start. Then keep tapping on the map where you’d like your route to extend to. Suunto app will calculate the distance, vertical meters and estimated duration and present it at the bottom of the screen as you create your route. As you build it, you can switch between different map styles, 2D and 3D, and with heatmaps on and off. Once you are ready, save your route, sync it to your Suunto watch and get out there! Learn more about the navigation features, map styles and routes with the Suunto app 🔺 Stay tuned for the rest of the five part series to learn how to live peak adventure with your watch from Suunto!